Public Engagement

Public Trust

Significantly, the initiation of forms of participatory and deliberative approaches is set in the context of what has been described by Brian Wynne and colleagues as a deficit in public trust concerning science and technology. Public engagement is here represented as a mechanism through which public trust can be restored by increasing the transparency and accountability of scientific governance and policy development. Though United Kingdom (UK) and international policy on nanotechnology increasingly speaks of a commitment to forms of upstream public engagement, the rationale of this policy development tends to be framed as ensuring that technologies are not “held back” by public skepticism.

Public concern, set against a broad lack of public trust in regulatory institutions and a succession of well-known technological controversies, can therefore be identified as the assumed backdrop to the current proliferation of studies on public perceptions of nanotechnology: the implicit assumption is that by measuring public opinion and perceptions of nanotechnology, and by actively engaging the lay citizenry in the development of nanotechnology, public trust can be restored and nanotechnology “successfully” developed.

If current governmental techniques are fundamentally driven by a desire to measure and mold citizens who trust in and are excited by science, it is perhaps not surprising that this has been made manifest in a swath of surveys of public opinion. Over the last six years, there have been several key studies that have examined different aspects of public perceptions of nanotechnology. Critically, and as expected, these surveys have found that most people (variously, in the United States, the UK, and Europe) are unfamiliar with nanotechnology, are generally enthusiastic toward the technology and its prospects, anticipate the greater probability of benefits over risks (although this is apparently less the case in Europe), and generally do not support a ban. However, at the same time, surveys also show that people express low levels of trust in government, industry, and regulatory authorities, are concerned as to nanotechnology's potential long-term effects on human health and the environment, and communicate a widespread desire for more information and openness and to be included in decision-making processes.

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